Waiting Game
by calsicle
Summary: Because of a certain business they must attend, Frisk had no choice but to come late to the annual New Year party held by Asgore. Devastated, Asriel determined that, even if it takes all night or means that he must miss the entire party, he would wait patiently for Frisk's arrival, as he wanted to be the first one to welcome them back home. And so, the waiting game began.
1. Buzz Game

**Wow... This was originally planned to be a one-shot with only about 2k words, but it ended up being a three-chaptered fic. I seriously didn't see that coming.**

 **Anyways, hello Undertale fandom! This is my first fanfiction for this fandom. Thank you, jacksepticeye, for bringing me into both buying the game and the fandom itself. The game's wonderful-still stuck on Sans' genocide battle, though, hahah (sweats nervously).**

 **As soon as I finished the True Pacifist Route, though, I immediately shipped these two-these two being Asriel and Frisk. This ship ruins me. Asfrisk is love, Asfrisk is life. This ship isn't that popular though, I think... even the tumblr tag Asriel x Frisk isn't that flooded... You guys need to consider this ship more! It's super cute hhhhhhhhhh. The idea of the two growing up together excites me!**

 **...Asriel lived, right? He went to the surface with the others... right? Hahah come on guys what are you talking about of course he lived hahah ha h ah shut up.**

 **Okay, let's set the joke aside for a moment. This is based on the prompt on tumblr blog otpprompts, submitted by anonymous.**

 **OK I'm done. You can proceed to read now. Also there are probably gonna be a lot of grammatical mistakes, seeing as my mother language isn't English. Sorry!**

 **Well then, enjoy yourself.**

* * *

Every New Year's Eve, a small, private party would be held in Asgore's new mansion. This tradition started a few years after Frisk successfully managed to bring all monsters back to the surface, and somehow managed to also bring Asriel back to life. Asriel never asked how Frisk managed to do so, and Frisk didn't seem like they oblige to tell anyone the story in detail, thus no one ever asked. Although Asriel remembered perfectly how exhausted Frisk appeared after they succeeded to bring Asriel back to life—heck, they were immediately knocked out at that time, clearly drained after whatever they did to restore Asriel's life once again.

When the first party was held, it was still held in Toriel's new built house. A small one, but the garden was big enough for a small party. Toriel and Asgore hadn't gone back together back then, too. The attendees were still the usual gang—Toriel, Asgore, Frisk, Asriel, Sans, Papyrus, Metatton, Alphys, Undyne—sometimes Napstablook, too, but only if they didn't reject the invitation out of self-shame.

At that time, Asriel was fourteen and Frisk was thirteen. A one year age gap, but that didn't make Frisk call him big brother or alike. In fact, Frisk had never seemed to regard him as an older brother, which used to sadden him a bit. But two years later, he knew why Frisk didn't see him as one.

They'd been dating ever since Asriel was sixteen and Frisk was fifteen. Four years had passed since then, and never did Frisk nor Asriel had missed out on any of the New Year's Eve parties. They were inseparable around those years. The two even went each year wearing matching clothes, in which Sans commented as very _coheple_ —which was a combination of the word _cohesive_ and _couple_ , he'd explained to the others. Nobody but Toriel laughed.

But as they grew older, their free-times decreased slowly. Now that Asriel was twenty-one and Frisk was twenty, the two had been too busy with college and alike to be with each other. And the fact that they went to separate universities wasn't helping either. Frisk had taken an interest as lawyer, whereas Asriel had taken an interest as a musician—even though his parents were persuading him to try to be a politician, which Asriel had no interest in.

Four days prior, Frisk went to Switzerland to do something—all Asriel knew was that it was important, and had to be done. It was like a business trip or something—Frisk did explain about it to him, but he understood nothing of what Frisk said, and he was too embarrassed to ask what they had meant by that.

It will take them four days to finish whatever they had to do there, and then they will come back.

Before the young goat knew it, four days had passed in a blink of an eye.

Fishing out his smartphone from his pocket, Asriel turned the screen on to check on the date and time. Thursday, December 31—a.k.a New Year's Eve—the smartphone informed him when his eyes glanced onto the date. Currently six in the afternoon, the digital clock informed him once more.

Asriel allowed himself to sigh. The party was staring in an hour, and Frisk hadn't even notified him about anything at all. Apprehension began to eat him up, but he didn't let it to do so that easily. He looked up to see himself—or his reflection, at least—in the mirror.

He looked very tired, as though he hadn't taken any decent sleep. Despite the fact that that wasn't true, he did have times when he found himself having trouble sleeping, especially these past four days. He didn't know he'd be this miserable without Frisk at his side.

But, hey, at least he looked fine in this formal black suit. It had a pair—a simplistic but elegant striped dress, which was supposed to be worn by Frisk, but…

Asriel sighed and stared back at his smartphone in distress, desperately waiting for a notification from Frisk—a message, a call, _anything at all_ —but still, he couldn't help but smile at the wallpaper he'd set up as the lock screen.

It was a photograph of the two of them being silly in a photo booth, taken about two years ago. He had added several hearts around the picture and Frisk had added silly quotes and glitters. The ridiculousness of their expressions was indescribable—but at least they looked like that they're having fun.

Asriel hadn't bothered to change the wallpaper since then.

The smile vanished as soon as the belief that Frisk would at least message him disappeared. With a frown etched onto his lips, he then proceeded to place his phone back to his pocket. Then, all of a sudden, his phone vibrated and rang the phone's default ringtone, earning a rather loud "woah—!" from him.

 _A call_ , he thought. Glancing at the screen to check who was calling, the corners of his lips went up without him realizing. Without waiting much longer, Asriel picked up the call. "Frisk?"

" _Hey, Asriel."_

Upon hearing Frisk's androgynous and amiable voice across the line, Asriel exhaled another sigh of relief—the difference was that this one was fairly long. When did he even start holding back his breath? Asriel couldn't remember and didn't bother to do so. He was too happy to hear Frisk's voice once again.

"Hey, Frisk," he responded, smiling. "How have you been?"

" _Great,"_ they replied from the other side. For some reason, Asriel could distinguish the relief from their muffled voice, which made him even gladder that Frisk was feeling the same way. He could also hear the distanced and muffled noises from the other side of the call as well. _"How about you, Azzy?"_

"I'm great, too," Asriel replied, taking a seat on the chair behind him. As he stared at his reflection before him, he gave the other a question while fixing the tousled white fur on his head. "Where are you right now? I can hear a lot of noises there."

" _Currently at the airport,"_ Frisk simply answered. Asriel was about to reply when they immediately continued, _"Ahh, speaking about the airport, I'm just going to inform you that my plane has been delayed for… an hour … So I think I'll be super late…"_

"Oh…" Asriel's smile fell. But after seeing the clear disappointment on his face, he rubbed his face and shook his head. The smile came back in a wink of an eye, although it seemed weak and forced. "Well, that's fine. I'll be waiting for you, Frisk, don't you worry."

There was a moment of awkward silence, causing the goat monster to get worried. He opened his mouth to speak again but shut it back when he heard a soft chuckle from the other side of the phone.

" _Aww, what a gentleman you are."_

Asriel watched as the white fur that was covering his face transformed into a shade of red, little by little growing even more. Embarrassed by his own reflection, he looked away from the mirror and, as if it could help, covered his face with his white-furred hand. "Shut up."

Seemingly amused by his gawky behavior, Frisk gave out a giggle. Frisk was a natural-born flirt; he knew that, so he should have seen that coming. For some reason, however, he didn't.

" _Oh, are you mad? Don't be mad, I was just teasing you!"_

"I'm not mad," Asriel said to them, emitting a chortle. "Just disappointed."

Knowing that Asriel was joking, this one caused Frisk to laugh even more. Asriel was glad that he could hear Frisk's genuine laugh again, even if it was over the phone. When the laugh died down and Frisk sighed, however, the goat knew something was up. "What's wrong?"

" _No, no, it's nothing. Just, that… if I still don't come even after the party's over, just go with the others and have fun with the fireworks, okay?"_

With this, Asriel frowned. "Come on, Frisk, don't say that… It's not like Switzerland is _that_ far, right? It's, what, a four hours trip from here, right?"

Frisk went silent for a moment. Asriel could hear them frowning over the phone—or maybe he was just imagining it. _Frowns couldn't be heard_ , Asriel reminded himself.

 _"You do_ _know that with the delay, I'd be there at around eleven, right? And not to mention the traffic there is an equivalent of hell, as well."_

"Right…" Asriel trailed off, discontent could be clearly perceived from that one word. "Yeah, of course. But I will still wait for you no matter what."

" _See, you're a gentleman. Oh—or should I say, gentle_ goat _?"_

Asriel didn't laugh. Instead, he gave her the reaction he usually gives to Sans whenever the latter gave out a bad pun. "Urghh, don't do that," Asriel groaned loudly, causing Frisk to laugh yet again. "While Sans may be proud of you for saying that, I'm not."

" _Alright, alright, sheesh, I'll stop."_ As Frisk friskily said that over the phone, Asriel's ears twitched upon hearing the three knocks from the other side of his room's door. Then, not long after that, came a familiar, gentle voice. "Asriel, dear, the party is starting soon. Are you in there?"

Keeping the phone away for a moment, Asriel shouted in reply, "Give me a second, mom!" Afterward, he drew his phone back to his ear. "The party's gonna start soon. Gotta go. See you later, Frisk."

" _Oh, yeah."_ Asriel might be imagining it, but he thought he might've heard disappointment in Frisk's voice. Maybe his head was judt playing with him. _"Sure. Talk to you later, Asriel. Love youuuu."_

He felt himself went red in the face yet another time. "Heh, love you too."

Frisk was the one who ended the call. Asriel's smile gradually vanished as he put the phone down on the brown mahogany table in front of him. Picking up his comb, he began to rake through the hairs on his head that he intentionally never cut so they will be a substitute to a real hair, and not a goat's fur. "Come in, mom."

As on cue, the door opened, revealing a female goat monster in her late forties. Toriel didn't come to him, however, as she was respecting her son's personal space—or at least Asriel thought that that was she was doing right now. "Who were you talking to, son?"

"Frisk," the son replied concisely.

"Ah, I see." Asriel saw his mother nod from the mirror. "How are they?"

"Great, they said. They also informed me that their plane is being delayed, so they may come late to the party."

"Is that so?" Toriel's face saddened a little, before she covered it up with a smile. _Didn't want to look sad in front of her son, huh,_ Asriel thought, smiling a bit. _Ah, mothers._

"Well, I'm sure they'll come. Don't worry, son," Toriel reassured him, putting on the most encouraging smile she could make.

"Even if they do miss the party, I'd be sure to wait for them." Asriel looked across his shoulder to give her a smile directly, and not with the mirror. "Don't worry, mom," Asriel mimicked with a grin.

Toriel appeared to be taken aback for a moment or two, but then released a quiet laughter, outwardly amused by his response. "Oh, you… Well then. Make sure you go to the living room once you're ready, okay? Alphys and Undyne are already here, and Sans and Papyrus are arriving soon."

"Yeah, got it. I'll be down in a jiffy," he told her. And with that, Toriel closed the door shut and went downstairs, leaving Asriel alone in his room once more.

"Now then…" Asriel set down the comb for now and peered over his reflection again—then to the container that seemed to contain some kind of minty-colored gel—then back to his reflection. "Should I use the hair gel, or no?"

* * *

 **Happy New Year's Eve, guys.**

 **Thank you for reading and if you have time, please leave a review!**


	2. Faux Pas Game

Asriel decided to not use the hair gel.

His hair was stiff enough, hence why he changed his mind about using it. Besides, his natural white hair was good enough―or at least he thought so.

As he stood against the wall with a glass of soda in his hand, Asriel checked his digital wristwatch. "Nine p.m., huh…" It'd been half an hour since the party started. Asriel knew that Frisk would land at approximately eleven o'clock, but he couldn't help but feel antsy without Frisk by his side. It felt weird being in the party without them.

Asriel shook his head. No—Frisk would definitely be late, sure, but they'd definitely come. They wouldn't go straight back to the Skelebros' house—which where they were currently staying for holidays…which disappointed him a little because he couldn't be _always_ with them for the holidays.

…Would they?

No, with both Sans and Papyrus here at the mansion, they wouldn't go back there. Besides, after the party, there will be still a fireworks display to celebrate the New Year. _Right,_ get a grip, Asriel. Frisk would definitely come even if they're late, and Asriel would definitely be waiting for them here.

Then again, the traffic jam would be a problem, wouldn't it? It was holiday season, so the road would be jammed with cars all around, even at midnight. Would Asriel wait, even if he had to wait for, say, three full hours? Who knows how many cars are currently stuck in the traffic jam right now. Probably thousa—

"hey, champ. you look like you're bones've been rattled there. somethin' rufflin' your furs?"

A voice interrupted the goat monster's thoughts. Asriel would recognize that low, guttural voice anywhere. He'd been hearing that voice for at least ten years now—there was no way he could ever forget this gruffly voice. As expected, when Asriel looked down, the older one of the Skelebros was standing there a few feet ahead of him, grinning his never-faltering full of mischief grin.

"It's nothing. Just…" he paused, and then shook his head. "No, nevermind. It's nothing worth saying."

"people who have something weighing their mind always say that," Sans stated. "must be 'bout frisk. am i right or am i right?"

Asriel chuckled at the joke. He wasn't that surprised that Sans could easily read through him—this skeleton had been living alongside of him for ten years, after all. Asriel knew from the beginning that lying wouldn't work on this attentive skeleton… yet he still lied.

"Observant as usual," Asriel grinned back. Nevertheless, his shoulder soon fell again and the grin faded away. "Yeah, it is about them."

"tell me 'bout it."

Asriel allowed the jazz music to enter his brain and relaxing it for a moment as he took his time picking the right words that he'd be using to explain his currently shambolic thoughts to Sans.

"…It's nothing real serious, really. I'm just scared they won't bother coming… Before you say anything, Sans, yes, I know that's impossible. I know Frisk wouldn't do something like that—I don't doubt them, really." Asriel paused, thinking twice about regardless whether or not should he say the next sentence. "I just can't wait to see them… I guess."

Silence broke between the two, though it just lasted for just about five seconds, as it was broken by Sans' quiet laughter. "asriel, asriel, asriel." Asriel lifted an eyebrow at this. Sans glanced at him, his grin widening if it were anymore possible. "even if they miss the party, they'd still come home. then you'd be able to see them. so you don't have to worry."

"Yeah, well… The thing is, I want to see them this night, and not the next day."

"it's not like i want to bring your hopes down, pal, but with that kind of traffic out there, it'd be _impassible_ to drive back here quickly."

"Was that a pun." Asriel didn't sound too entertained.

"hey, i was just trying to lighten up the mood."

Even if Asriel rolled his eyes, he _did_ laugh inwardly. "Oh, speaking of puns, you're going to be so proud of Frisk."

"what do you mean?"

"They just made a pun about me being a gentleman earlier on the phone," Asriel said. "I'm a gentle _goat_ , they said."

That caused Sans to be in a fit of laughter, causing to turn several heads toward the two. Asriel shook his head—he shouldn't have done that. Oh, well, it was always nice to make Sans laugh, after all. "ohh, that kid. i'm so proud of them i can feel tears coming out from my eye sockets…"

Asriel rolled his eyes, knowing that the Sans was kidding. But he did laugh a little. Just a little, though. "Anyways, so the roads are jammed, then?"

"when papyrus and i were driving here, yeah. dunno if it's still, though."

Sans gave Asriel a light smack on the back, startling the young goat a bit. "loosen up, young 'un. pretty sure they'll come back, even if they are late."

Asriel peered at the shorter, yet older monster, and laughed quietly. "Heh, you sound like an old man there, saying _young 'un_ and stuff."

"well, i _am_ in my thirties now… still not as old as tori, though." Sans glanced away and muttered, although loud enough to be caught by Asriel's acute auditory perception. "welp. i'm going to go and talk with the other guests now. you should definitely join me—how 'bout that?"

Considering standing around here and wait for his significant other to come back for roughly three hours would be boring as hell, Asriel instantaneously accepted the skeleton's offer. "Yeah, why not?"

The young goat monster then spent the rest of what supposed to be his waiting time going around the hall talking to guests, which were mostly monsters, but there were several humans as well—most of them being the significant others of the monsters that brought them. That made Asriel felt kind of left out—but that feeling died out almost instantly when Sans pulled off a really bad pun about goats, causing Asriel and the guests around to groan at the skeleton.

Mettaton was there on the stage as usual. Like the other eight original attendees, Mettaton never missed any of the annual parties.

…Well, maybe it's seven now, considering Frisk…

"Oh." A certain dour-looking ghost caught Asriel's attention, pushing the negative thought away from his mind for a while. A smile crept up onto Asriel's lips as he watched Nabstablook changing the jazz song to an EDM on the stage, being a DJ. Or maybe he should say Spooky DJ? Nevertheless, he was glad to see the ghost on the stage, doing his hobby blissfully. Nabstablook looked happy for once, and that was a good thing.

After a few minutes looking around more, he realized that Sans weren't at his side anymore. Well, that actually happens quite often, almost every day even, so Asriel didn't really mind. Even so, Asriel does want to know how the older skeleton pulls off that kind of trick…

He decided to push the skeleton away from his head.

From afar, Asriel saw Monster Kid staring at the chocolate-flavored cake which he guessed was baked by Undyne hungrily. Being the kind monster he was, Asriel strode toward the handless yellow monster and sliced off a portion of the cake for his friend. That earned him one of the most grateful-sounding "thank you!" he'd ever heard from Kid, to which Asriel replied with a wave of his hand.

Then he talked to Undyne and Alphys about the top ten anime of the year, which in reality just consisted of the two screaming enthusiastically about it in his face. Slowly escaping from the couple, Asriel then went and talked to Papyrus who was eating a plate of spaghetti.

Asriel laughed out loud when Papyrus claimed that the spaghetti was not as good as his cooking, even though the tall skeleton kept on eating it as though he hadn't eaten anything in days. Asriel, for the umpteenth time today, almost jumped backward when Sans suddenly appeared beside him once again.

"Don't do that!" Asriel complained.

"sorry, thought you're used to it by now," Sans grinned, pleased by the reaction he received.

"Frisk, _please_ do something with this—" Asriel stopped abruptly, realizing what he just said. His eyes widened. He caught a glimpse at the Skelebros, wincing slightly when he noticed the uneasiness written all over their faces. Asriel breathed out harshly, muttering an apology before he slipped away from the crowd.

Fun times he had for almost three full hours, yet it just had to be ruined by a slip of his tongue. How clumsy.

"You _idiot_ ," Asriel told himself once he found a spot that seemed to be indiscernible to the other guests. "That could've gone way better than that, and you just had to ruin it…"

"chillax, buddy. it's not like we mind or anything."

Asriel turned his head around and looked past his shoulder, expecting Sans to be the one standing behind him. Surely enough, he was correct.

"Heh," Asriel snorted. "But clearly you two were uncomfortable by my stupid mistake, weren't you? I saw how you too just looked at each other awkwardly as if saying _what the hell is this guy doing_ and slash or _is he stupid or something_ or maybe—"

" _ **.**_ "

The furs of the said man stood up upon hearing the change Sans did to his way of speaking—he'd heard this side of him a couple of hundred times before, but it was never directed to him. It was mostly directed to thieves or delinquents alike—but never to him.

Asriel swallowed his own saliva and peeked at the skeleton before him. For only a fleeting moment, the whites in his eye sockets were gone, but then it came back almost instantly as soon as Asriel landed his eyes on him.

"it's fine. we don't blame you on missing them. 'sides, it's not only you who misses them—all of us do, especially the seven of us. i know it's different on your case, but still, we're trying to understand. you'll see frisk, no matter what. i can assure you on that. so, please, just chill. 'mkay?"

That speech wasn't even that long, but it was enough to render the young goat speechless. Having his lips parted quite wide, Asriel blinked several times, his eyes still fixed upon skeleton before him.

"Right," Asriel exhaled after a while, bringing up a hand to massage his forehead in an attempt to placate himself. "Right. Sorry. I, ah, wasn't thinking straight…" Smiling, the goat said gratefully, "Thank you."

"s'fine. no big deal, really." Sans rubbed the back of his neck, laughing a bit, glad that Asriel's cool and composure came back. The skeleton then stretched a hand toward the taller monster, grinning like always. "so, how 'bout coming to the backyard with the others and wait for the fireworks to be set? undyne and paps are currently working on it."

 _Oh, yeah. That happens, too._

But Asriel had already settled that he ought to wait for Frisk. Perhaps, he wanted to be the first one to see their awaited arrival? Yes, that might be it.

Asriel shook his head, rejecting the offer. "Thanks for the offer, Sans, but I'm going to wait for Frisk the entrance door. You can find me there if anyone wants to talk."

Sans didn't look surprise by the response. In fact, seeing as he laughed quietly at the response, he looked like as if he was expecting it. "are you sure, bud? you can always wait for them with the us, y'know. what do you say?"

Asriel frowned—this guy was so oblivious. "No, um… Well…"

 _How do you say that you want your privacy with your significant other to who you regard as your own uncle?_ That silly question suddenly appeared in his mind.

Putting his fist against his mouth, Asriel averted his gaze and cleared his throat. "…I… want to have our privacy…?"

Asriel's awkward response was quick to shut Sans' mouth—figuratively, of course, given that the latter doesn't have lips.

Sans, too, cleared his throat, and weirdly, instead of making his voice much clearer, his voice grew hoarser than before—as well as more awkward. "of course, i'm so silly, heh." Sans gave out an awkward laugh as he scratched the back of his cranium. Asriel himself couldn't help but grin awkwardly, too.

"well, suit yourself, then, buddy. if you ever get tired of waiting, just know that we're at the back, 'mkay?" Sans informed as he started to walk backward toward one of the pillar.

Asriel smiled smugly. "I've got it, Sans, don't worry. I'll be sure to come back with Frisk by my side."

Sans only responded with a laugh. "i'll be seeing you, bucko." With that said, the stout skeleton stepped behind the pillar—but did not reappear again. Fazed, Asriel strode toward the pillar where the skeleton was. But no one was standing there—there wasn't even any clue about how Sans could disappear into thin air like that.

"How the hell does he pull this trick? Can he teleport or something?"

Deciding that it was impossible to rationalize it, Asriel shoved the nonsensical thought away from his head and headed for the mansion's entrance. As he made his way there, the goat pulled up his phone from his pocket to check on the time and new notifications. It was almost eleven p.m. now, and as for the new notifications…

"They're probably still in the plane," Asriel convinced himself the minute he saw no new notifications.

As soon as he arrived at the entrance hall, the young goat marched toward the open door and rested his body against the wall next to the giant majestic door.

Then the waiting game started.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading and if you have time, please leave a review!**


	3. Waiting Game

For about twenty minutes he spent there standing, tapping his feet impatiently as his eyes observed the asphalt road and the black yet grand gate alternately—obviously on the lookout for Then he began to pace here and there out of frustration. Sometimes he'd even groan to himself each and every time his brain decided to be negative and pessimistic, making up worst-case scenarios that Asriel was sure the likelihood of them actually happening was naught.

Listless, Asriel came back to his original spot and sighed. Then, all of a sudden, he was surprised by the vibration of his phone in his pocket. Instead of being annoyed, however, he felt hopeful as he received a new notification.

And to make him more excited than ever, it turned out to be a message from Frisk. It was a very short message, yet a meaningful one;

 _* just landed. otw mansion!_

As if reading his mind, his phone received another message.

 _* also, battery's running out. can't call, sry!_

"Just great," Asriel scowled to himself. It seemed he had to do another waiting game, which sucked—but then again, it was inevitable. If he wanted to be the first one to see Frisk again, he had to do it.

And so he did.

This time, nearly one and a half hour was spent with him walking back and forth in front of the giant, majestic door. Not literally, of course, as once in a while he'd stop to either sigh or groan—or just simply rest.

He even thought about going to the backyard and join the others with the fireworks display. It was almost impossible for him to not catch the faint and indistinct noises from the backyard. Still, he wouldn't allow for his determination to wait for Frisk's arrival to shake just because of the long-lasting anticipation.

Asriel peered at his wristwatch. It was half past twelve now, and two things immediately came to his mind; first, Frisk still hadn't come. They were probably stuck in a traffic jam… Speaking of traffic jam, he probably should check if there was indeed a traffic jam from the airport to here, or not.

Second, why haven't the fireworks display started? It was clearly past twelve now, and the fireworks were usually activated at exactly twelve o'clock, at the first minute of the New Year.

"Huh. Weird. Maybe Papyrus messed something up…" Asriel murmured to himself.

Unlocking his phone, he opened the map and proceeded to check whether there was a jam on the road from the airport to here, or not.

There was.

Asriel puffed out a sad deep breath. Well, it couldn't be helped. It wasn't as if he had the power to order other cars to move away to let Frisk's car go through first. But politicians have that power, don't they? Maybe he should reconsider about being a politician. Perhaps it'd be nice to be one. He'd never been fond of the past politicians—that was one of the reasons he didn't think twice about rejecting his parents' offer. Then again, he liked studying and making music—

The gate opened. The giant, grand black gate had opened, allowing a yellow taxi to enter the mansion's garden. The engine's noises grew louder as the taxi drove closer and closer, but as it came nearer and nearer, Asriel felt his body freezing, finding himself unable to move from his spot. Only his eyes were the ones able to move by following the taxi's movement.

Then it stopped a few feet in front of him, parking on the drop-off area. The door on the other side opened, and he could see brown hair peeking out behind the car. Asriel watched as the driver began to put the personal belongings from the trunk to the ground, thanking the passenger afterward as he received his pay from them.

The yellow taxi subsequently left, leaving Asriel and the brunette staring at each other for god knows how long. He couldn't help but notice that the human was donning a striped dress with a dark blue cardigan embracing their shoulders.

Asriel's eyes widened as he spoke, "Frisk—"

And before he knew it, he already found himself in a tight embrace. He felt Frisk's arms around him, squeezing him firmly into a hug that almost made Asriel fall backward and melt like chocolate. He felt Frisk burying their head into Asriel's chest, flustering him for a moment. Nevertheless, he quickly gained his composure back and embraced the shorter brunette as well.

Without breaking the hug, Asriel said, "Finally—god, I miss you so much, Frisk—you have no idea how long I waited here just in order to be the one who sees you first…"

Frisk laughed at that. They brushed their small, soft hand around Asriel's back, tapping it several times also to soothe him. "Tell me about that."

"Just… I just…"

"Shh, shh," Frisk lulled him. "I miss you too, Azzy, I miss you too. I miss you too…"

"You're… you're wearing the dress!"

The brunette giggled. "Surprise!" They laughed.

Then both jumped at the same time at the sudden noise of some kind of a siren. Then another one came—then another, then another. It was deafening and loud, making Asriel whose hearing was sharp to wince.

"What the hell was that!" Asriel shouted over the earsplitting sound of whatever it was.

"Azzy, Azzy, look!" Frisk frantically pointed a finger toward the sky. Asriel did what they told him to—and how surprised he was to see colorful lines shooting up toward the sky from somewhere. And the young goat knew perfectly what they were called.

As if knowing that they were now looking, brilliant fireworks bloomed on the dark sky, painting it with vibrant, different shades of colors—red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, purple, and orange. Asriel watched as they blossomed up there, similar to colorful flowers hanging from the night sky. Even if one by one eventually died out, another one would replace them gradually—it was as if there were infinite fireworks.

 _But it's past New Year now, isn't it? …Eh, who cares._

"It's still amazing," Asriel voiced out his own thoughts.

"Did you say anything?" Frisk shouted in his ears, startling him from top to bottom.

"I said it's still amazing! The fireworks, I—" Whatever Asriel was about to say next vanished in the back of his mind as soon as he saw Frisk's face. He could think of so many wonderful adjectives to describe how perfect their face looked like right now under the vibrant colors of the fireworks—of course, he was not stating that their face wasn't always amazing.

"—zy? Azzy?"

Asriel didn't hear them. He was too fascinated by how flawless Frisk's complexion was by blending in together with the colorful shades of colors pouring down from the sky.

"Earth to Asriel Dreemurr!" Frisk's second attempt successfully brought back Asriel from his fuzzy attention.

"O-Oh, umm, sorry. Got lost for a second there…"

"Got lost of my face?" Frisk grinned, effectively reading through him.

Asriel felt his face burning up. "No! Well, err, may…be…" Asriel murmured, hoping that his voice was quiet enough for Frisk to hear him.

Frisk laughed. "Aww, Asriel, you're so c—"

"OH MY GOD, WILL YOU TWO JUST SMOOCH ALREADY? THE AUDIENCES ARE CRAVING FOR SOME ROMANTIC ACTIONS HERE!"

"Wh—"

Hearing a very familiar muffled, machinelike voice as though the owner was speaking through a megaphone coming from behind, Asriel looked past his shoulder—only to find a very annoyed looking Mettaton being held back by Alphys, presumably making an effort to bring him back to their _hiding spot_.

"Oh my…" Asriel heard Frisk muttered. It seemed that the fireworks display had died out, as he could now hear the brunette's mutter clearly.

Appearing to be very much irritated, Asriel let out a groan. He didn't think he'd be the first one to break the hug, considering how desperate he was before Frisk arrived.

"Give… me a moment." Asriel subsequently turned on his heels and stomped toward where Alphys and Mettaton were, who were currently arguing about something. Once he was close enough that his shadow managed to loom over the two, the young goat demanded, "What do you guys think you're doing?"

But neither Alphys nor Mettaton answered. Even though the former did make an attempt to answer, her stutters were quickly disturbed by an awfully loud and shrill voice coming from… above?

"ALPHYS AND METTATON WERE WAITING FOR YOU TO KISS SO METTATON CAN TAKE A PICTURE OF YOU TWO KISS UNDER THE FIREWORKS!"

Both Asriel and Frisk looked up to the balcony directly above. Papyrus's head was there, popping down from the balcony, bemusing the couple even more.

Alphys, however, looked aghast by the way too straightforward answer. "P-P-Papyrus!"

"PAPYRUS, YOU IDIOT!" Another voice came from above, this one a female voice. Asriel recognized it immediately. "YOU CAN'T SAY THAT SO STRAIGHTFORWARDLY, PARTICULARLY IN FRONT OF THESE TWO!" Undyne shouted.

"I-I'M SORRY, UNDYNE, I DIDN'T KNOW THA—"

"So it was all set up?" Asriel interrupted by scowling, causing every heads to turn to him. "Was… were the fireworks set up too?" Before anyone could answer, Asriel had finally grasped what seemed to be the idea of all of this. "—Is that why the fireworks are released _past_ twelve? Because you guys were setting up a good _background_ for the two of us? To make it, what, more emotional?!"

Infuriated, Asriel was about to let out another outburst, but was stopped by a tap on his shoulder. It was undoubtedly Frisk.

"Now, now, Azzy. Calm down. It's not a big deal—they only did it for a good reason, y'know," Frisk reassured him as they ruffled with Asriel's white furs once he turned around.

"Yeah, the fireworks were nice and all, but do they really have to take a picture of us?"

"Why not? It'd make a good memorial. Besides, they haven't even taken any picture of us—there's no reason for you to be upset."

Frisk really did drop the mic there. Asriel felt stupid all of a sudden after listening to Frisk's laidback reaction at the others' deeds.

"yeah, pal, listen to the kid, they're right, y'know."

All heads turned to the source of the voice. Asriel expected to find only Sans standing there, but instead he was accompanied by two other figures.

"Sorry, son, it was our idea… We didn't think you'd be this upset." A good, sonorous voice, but less hoarse than Sans's—there could only be one person who owned this. Asgore.

"Yeah... Once we heard from Sans that you're going to be waiting for Frisk outside, we can't help but do this. Sorry, son." This time it was his mother who said that, her soft and gentle voice always recognizable.

"heh, yeah. sorry, boy. it's just impossible to stop these two once their mind is made up."

Upon finding out that his own parents were the ones behind this entire charade, Asriel felt his cheeks slowly burning up as he realized that he became upset for nothing. Asriel wanted to slap himself in the face for being so stupid. His palm was already at his face as he started to mutter about how stupid he was earlier and about how ashamed he was of himself.

Although, he stopped in an instant when he felt a hand brushing his shoulder again. It was Frisk, yet again. Though the young goat was slightly puzzled by the somewhat scheming grin they were wearing.

"What is it, Frisk…?"

"Well, Azzy, why don't we put what the crowd wants?" It might be his imagination, but he thought he'd seen Frisk's grin getting wider.

Asriel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you me—"

Then he realized it. But his realization was too late, since he found himself being pulled so abruptly towards the human by his collar—then felt their soft lips against his. Eyes widening, Asriel was too surprised to kiss Frisk back. They were too skilled at this kind of thing—and Asriel should be too, seeing as they'd been dating for years now, and yes, they do kiss a lot, too. But the thing was that they were doing this _in front of literally everyone_ and that was making the young goat flustered.

Surprised gasps could be heard, flashes could be seen from where Mettaton was standing, Alphys could be seen blushing from the corner of his eyes—so many things were happening in only mere seconds, Asriel couldn't list them all, especially with his lips still intact with Frisk's silky ones.

"G-Golly… We should really give them some private time, huh," Asgore said awkwardly.

"Y-Yeah… Let's just go back inside, yes…?" Toriel offered.

Nobody refused the mother's offer—well, maybe Mettaton, saying that he still had to take more photos of the two kidding. Awkwardly, they began to make their way back inside the mansion, with the last one being Sans who took his time saying, "welp then, you guys can join us clean the hall after you're done," before disappearing into thin air yet again for the third time tonight.

"F-Frisk—" Asriel was out of breath. He was already panting, wanting to break the kiss but didn't have the heart to do so as he didn't want to make Frisk feel disappointed.

But Frisk knew. They pulled away immediately as soon as they noticed Asriel's unsteady breaths. Asriel took his time to catch a breath before exhaling one more time. "G-Geez, you're so extreme…" the goat whispered as he covered his face to hide his blush—his attempt was futile, though.

"It was worth it, was it not?" Frisk giggled.

Asriel wanted to argue. He wanted to say that it was too embarrassing, that he didn't like it at all—but that would make him a liar. "I… I guess so."

Frisk seemed pleased by his honesty. "You should've seen your face when I suddenly kissed you in front of all of them!"

"I can see that later on Mettaton's camera, thank you," Asriel said grouchily.

"Aww, is my Azzy angry? Is he mad that I kissed him in front of everyone? Or is he just… embarrassed?" Frisk's teases had always been so effective against Asriel.

Asriel let out a sigh. Without saying anything, he bent his waist a little so that he was at the same height as the other, and then proceeded to push their small nose, smiling sincerely as he did so.

"Happy New Year, Frisk," Asriel whispered. "Love you."

The stunned expression on Frisk's countenance turned into a jovial one as their lips widened, forming a joyful smile. They, too, pushed Asriel's nose, and grinned one of the cheeriest grin Asriel had ever seen in his life.

"Happy New Year to you too, Azzy," Frisk replied softly. "Love you too."

* * *

 **Happy New Year, guys! Hope your new year will be better than before.**

 **Thank you for reading and if you have time, please leave a review!**


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